CLERMONT, Fla. - The Cabrini softball team will head to Clermont, Fla. for its annual Spring break trip to kick off the 2015 season.
The Blue and White will play Lebanon Valley College and Elizabethtown College on Monday, March 2. On Tuesday, the Cavaliers will take on the College of Saint Benedict before they face Saint Vincent College and, on Thursday, Cabrini will finish its trip with games against Trine University and Ohio Northern University.
Under third year head coach
Mitchell Kline, the Blue and White is coming off one of its best seasons in program history, going 25-18 and tying the 2010 team for the most wins since 2004, marking just the seventh 25 win campaign in Cavalier history.
Kline graduated just one player from last year's club and returns six student-athletes who earned All-CSAC accolades last season. Leading the Cavaliers will be sophomore
Amber Dietrich and junior Caitlyn Cooper.
Dietrich was named to the ECAC South All-Stars second team and NFCA All-East Region third team after leading the Blue and White with a .393 batting average, 55 hits, 40 runs scored, four triples, eight home runs and 12 stolen bases, while her 28 RBI were second on the team.
Cooper joined Dietrich, earning All-CSAC First Team Honors for her stellar play last season. The junior averaged .371 at the plate, added 53 hits, 13 doubles, four triples, seven home runs and 28 RBI.
Senior
Becca Miles hit .331 with 10 doubles, three home runs, and 25 RBI. Senior
Steph Diegel led the Blue and White with 14 doubles last year and added 36 RBI and three home runs into the mix.
Lebanon Valley is coming off a successful 34-6 season and an NCAA Regional Tournament appearance. The Dutchmen saw four seniors graduate in the offseason, losing a combined 142 hits, 87 runs and 83 RBI, they will look to sophomore Sammy Bost to build off her team high .424 batting average, 53 hits and 26 stolen bases season.
Elizabethtown College saw its season come to an end after suffering an 8-0 loss to Moravian University in the Landmark Conference Championship in 2014. The Blue Jays will look to their six returning seniors to improve the clubs 13-24 record last season. Senior Kaylee Warner led the Blue Jays in 2014, with a .429 batting average, 32 RBI and six home runs, while classmate Payton Marunich added 42 hits and 16 RBI with a batting average of .362.
The College of Saint Benedict improved to 2-0 on the season with a pair of victories, topping Wisconsin-Stout 3-2 and 4-2 on February 14. In game one, senior Lonnica Johnson drove home the game's final three runs in the seventh inning to complete the walk off win. In the night cap, sophomore Kim Lidstone worked her magic on the base paths once again, stealing second before scoring the winning run off of senior Lexi Alm's ground rule double down the right field line.
Saint Vincent College finished its 2014 campaign with an eight win improvement, going 22-14, falling just short of the postseason. Sophomores Laken Lyon and Breanne Wallace hope to lead the charge in 2015. Last season, Lyon earned a 7-3 record with an ERA of 2.18, while Wallace led the team in hitting with 30 hits, 14 doubles and 25 RBI.
Trine University, who won a program record 43 games last season, enters the 2015 season ranked sixth in the nation and will return senior and All-American center fielder Carly Searles, who is the NCAA's active leader in career triples with 38 and holds a career batting average of .455. Also returning for the Thunder, junior and All-Region outfielder Kaitlyn Clark, who led Trine with 16 home runs, 67 hits, 62 RBI and a batting average of .399.
Ohio Northern University took home the Ohio Athletic Conference regular season title for the sixth time in the last seven years before falling 7-2 to Muskingum in the OAC Championship game last year. The Polar Bears are 1-0 this season after topping Lyndon State 9-1. Junior Amanda Lahti knocked in two of the nine runs, while sophomore Paige Ordean earned her first win of the season, allowing just one run in four innings.
